Automatic transmission is great for your car, but like other parts in your car, it can also get affected by wear and tear. Your muffler can start malfunctioning, and tires may also not get pumped up properly. These problems are enough to ruin all your plans, and that too for a longer period. At the same time, these problems are also quite dangerous for driving. Here you will get a rough knowledge of certain common problems associated with car transmissions, which can help you better understand your car mechanics.
Decrease in the transmission fluid levels
If someone asks you the lifeblood of the automatic transmission, you can easily answer that person. Yes, it’s the transmission fluid. And the decreased fluid level is the most common form of automatic transmission. Without transmission fluid or with an insufficient amount of it, your car cannot work properly. Sometimes, an unusual situation may also occur when you’re finding the fluid to be present in a sufficient amount, but the quality may degrade. You can differentiate the quality from its colour and smell. A good fluid will be reddish in colour and translucent in appearance. Simultaneously, bad odour and unpleasant colour and appearance indicate degradation in the quality and possibility of your car’s transmission problems.
Hesitation
This is a peculiar situation that may arise due to a problem in the transmission. Sometimes you may find that a delay is occurring in starting the car, i.e. it takes a longer time to start the car after blowing the gear. There may be several reasons behind such a condition. Slipping clutch packs and insufficient fluid pressure due to low fluid levels can lead to such problem. It may also occur due to defects in the pressure pump.
Failure to select any of the gears
This is another impact of lower fluid levels. Another reason may be any stickiness or defect in the shift solenoids. Electrical issues in the transmission’s electronic control system may also give rise to a likely condition.
Harshness in the gearshifts
In every car, there is a torque converter lock-up clutch in the control system, which is exclusively designed to slip somewhat when there occur aggressive driving conditions, and you have to perform a gearshift. If a fault happens in the control system to modulate that torque converter lock-up clutch, the gearshift becomes harsh, dangerous for driving.
Stalling of the engine at low speeds
This is another situation which is resulted from a fault in the torque converter clutch. When this happens, the engine and transmission get locked together permanently. This leads to a stop in the engine’s differential rotation and transmission, making the engine stalling at lower speeds.
Transmission overheats
Transmission overheating problem is a really serious one to counter. If the transmission fluid level is too high or too low, this can lead to overheating in the transmission system. But it may also cause when the towing loads exceed transmission’s rated capacity. An obvious indication of transmission overheats is experiencing a bad odour.
Slipping gears
This is another common problem associated with automatic transmissions. This happens when transmission gets slipped out of one gear and gets into another. This can be an unnerving, annoying as well as devastating situation for a driver. As a driver, you may also experience trouble in accelerating. The primary cause behind slipping gear is the lack of transmission fluid. It can be easy to fix, but it can lead to other serious problems as well. Other causes behind slipping gears include worn out or broken transmission bands, problems in clutches, gears or shift solenoids.
Two gears are getting selected simultaneously
One shift solenoid may fail to close when the other open. Also, when one or more valve spools in the valve body stick or bind, then two or more hydraulic circuits get placed under pressure at the same time. In such a case, one gear cannot be deselected before the other is selected.
Humming noises
Well, the automatic transmission isn’t very noisy. But if you experience unusual and loud noises in the system, especially when you shift the gear to neutral, that indicates a transmission problem. Noises are generally caused due to worn bearings or other rotating components in the car. Typically, you will experience whining, humming, rumbling and grinding sounds. The intensity of sounds may or may not vary with the speed of your car.
How can you fix your transmission problems?
As said, transmission fluid is the lifeblood of automatic transmission. It generally performs two principal functions: providing lubrication and transmitting power from the engine to the transmitter through a torque converter. So, most of your issues can be fixed by replacing and filtering the transmission fluid according to your vehicle’s maintenance manual.
In the end
There are a number of options available on the internet regarding auto care services. SAI Auto Care is one of them, and you can easily contact such an organisation and get a transmission specialist for your car.
